I am getting another sav. But this time I am going to ditch the normal "pet owner" approach of "oh, i want to hold it!" and "oh, why wont it be nice to me?" I am going to take the approach of one who has a MONITOR not a pet. For Caging i am using a cage made out of regular lumber(pine i guess) like you get from lowes. The cage is 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. On the top of the cage there will be a portion just lage enough to put his basking lamp made out of wire. The rest will be covered by plywood. I'm going to leave one of the sides open(wire) for ventilation. The rest will be covered in wood. Subsrate will be cypress mulch(about a foot deep). For a hide, all i am going to do is put a large piece of tile flat on top of the mulch and let him do the rest. I am NOT going to try and "tame" him. If he wants to interact w/ me when i clean and such that is up to him. I should have realized all of this before i got my first monitor.
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Getting a monitor again BUT with changes....please read
Replies (10)
Just to let you know Lowes has terrible wood.
maybe your Lowe's does. I built a cage out of Lowes wood 5 years ago, and is holding up awesome. The Lowe's where i live is great.
Hi Kevin. make some changes to your changes.
Enclose the whole cage. Drill holes for ventilation on the sides.
Make it atleast 3 feet tall, 4 feet would be better.
Savs will climb, add some driftwood or long logs for it to climb on. You can place one end of a log to use as a basking site.
Hard to move around in a 2 foot cahe with close to 2 feet of substrate.
Good luck this time.
Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
I have used the idea of something on top of the dirt for them to dig under, but with a little modification. I got a piece of plywood or whatever I had (a lot lighter than tile) and burried it just below the surface of th dirt. I then started a little hole under it so the monitor knew he could dig there. The monitors usually find it very quickly and build a burrow under it for a hide. The wood is light enough so it will not crush the monitor as they dig dirt out from under it.
Lowes also sells vents for a couple of bucks that I put in the side of one of my cages. It looks professional and that cage holds humidity and heat a lot better than the cage I have where I cut the top enough foe the light to shine through.
The tall cage has the vent below the window
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Ed
These heat lamps make my electric bill to high.
Hey Ed, can you email me some inside and topside pictures of your enclosure? That's around something i'd like for my sav. I haven't gotten the plans down smack yet but so far mine was going to look like that.
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1.0 Savannah Monitor - Artimus
1.0 Emerald Swift - Jesus
1.1 Green Iguana - King Arthur, Lady Guenivere
1.0 Basilisk - Adam
2.2 Cats - Psycho(radiation), Moses, Satan, Bandy.
3.3 Dogs - Romeo, Falon, Baby Girl, Scooter, Whiskers, R.I.P. Juliet
1.3 feeder mice I've seen hunchin, let's see if they still got it in em'!
I will send you some when I get home tonight.
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Ed
These heat lamps make my electric bill to high.
I sent e-mailed you
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Ed
These heat lamps make my electric bill to high.
I thought Pine was posionous to monitors.
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Your thinking of CEDAR not pine. Besides with the cage you want to protect it with a waterproof lining such as FRP then seal the corners with silicone 2.
CEDAR is poisonous to anything, thats why insects wont chew anything in a cedar chest, or for that matter on cedar shingles.
In fact using melamine, fiberboard, flake board, OSB etc is a less desireable as they are held together with a lot of glue, if it gets wet it can release fumes that are not so healthy, but you need to pick your poison as FR has said before.
get one young. get it captive born. if it is grumpy and opening it's mouth...leave it alone. if it tolerates your advances try holding it. make sure it feels like it's feet are supported and belly with your hand/forearm. if you follow this formula...they almost always calm down. occasionally pet it's back w/o picking it up also to get used to you. they can develop a "feeding response" if you never open cage except to pitch a mouse in. they are a fairly docile species if you follow this. i have and have had several and this has been my observation over the last 15 years.
